[mblchris]

Friday night I went to the local Apple store (Easton Town Center, people always ask which) and purchased an iBook 14" 933 with stock ram and hard drive. I should point out that I come from a linux background so that's the perspective I had when I started using this system.

Nice things:

• iTunes works rather well, I don't see any reason to use something else
• The screen is amazingly clear
• Overall the system is pretty quick and as far as pure speed goes I'd say I'm happy. Seems slower than my 1800+ XP but I expected that. Although that could be a side-effect of the minimal ram
• I get about 3 hours battery life which is sufficient for me. I almost laughed when the salesman told me it would last 5-6 hours though.

Obviously it's much easier to list annoyances, but I do really love it so far.

Annoyances:

• I cannot seem to find a way to maximize a window to take up as much screen space as possible. If I mention this to another mac user I'm usually told "logical" resizing is better and to stop thinking like a windows user. I have this 14" for a reason and if I want to have emacs cover it then I don't see the problem with that. Maybe I'll accept that I have to drag the window size everytime I open it.
• If I'm compiling something large (emacs, or something big from fink) the system lags to the point where typing text can skip a bit. This seems to be due to the 256 ram though so I plan to get another 512 stick soon.
• For some reason if I have a cd in the drive I can only eject it with iTunes. Even if nothing is accessing the drive the eject key just seems to do nothing.
• fn + "alt option" never seems to show up as alt in any of my applications, perhaps I'm misreading the key?
• How can you guys live with only one mouse button? I definitely need to get a mouse to go with it.

[skalie]

Originally posted by mblchris:
For some reason if I have a cd in the drive I can only eject it with iTunes. Even if nothing is accessing the drive the eject key just seems to do nothing.

Tried dragging and dropping the CD icon to the rubbish bin?

Originally posted by mblchris:
How can you guys live with only one mouse button? I definitely need to get a mouse to go with it.

Extra mouse by all means, but "control click" is also cool. Using a Mac sort of gets one used to keyboard shortcuts, which is beneficial in the long run I reckon....

...and welcome aboard.

[discotronic]

You could definately use a memory upgrade. I think you would be alot happier if you put the extra 512MB in.

1 mouse button does take getting use to. Myself, I don't have a need for the 2 or 3 button with the programs I use.

The "logical" sizing of the window sucks. I like the way Windows handles it better.

Sounds like there is a problem with you eject key. Unless something has changed with the G4's it should eject when pressed. On older Mac laptops that I have owned I had to drag the CD into the trash or eject from the menu.

I have found that the only way I get over 4 hours on battery is to turn the screen brightness down to 2-3 blocks. I usually don't mess with the processor settings. Then again, I have a 12" whereas you have the 14". I would say that makes a big difference.

Anyway, congrats on the purchase.

[sniffer]

Originally posted by mblchris:
[snip-snip]

I cannot seem to find a way to maximize a window to take up as much screen space as possible.

How can you guys live with only one mouse button? I definitely need to get a mouse to go with it.

The plus widget doesn't work the way as on Windows as you already have noticed. The physic rules for many things are different on the Mac. The plus widget sets the window to the default size set by the programmer wich should normally be a sufficent window size for that program window. That is the default rule. In some programs the behavior does how ever vary. iTunes sets the window to a mini control window, and apps like Preview the window grows just enough so you get rid of the scroll bars and no further(Edit: Seems to be the default rule if scroll bars exists..). It's a very fundamental difference between mac and windows. The classic example where this behavior is most useful is multi tool windowed apps like Photoshop. This is also suited for instances where you have a huge monitor where a edge to edge maximized window is overkill in most cases. But of course opinions on this things vary.

When it comes to how we manage with only one mouse button, that's a good question. Reason one on why it's that way is probably because contextual menus aren't very user friendly. People might not agree on it, but the thing is that new computer users have a real hard time understanding how it works. So it's probably a goal for Apple to make the user as little depended on contextual menus as possible which is a good thing IMHO. But in some modern apps like games for instance this idea is harder to justify.

[mgl]

Originally posted by mblchris:

• I cannot seem to find a way to maximize a window to take up as much screen space as possible. If I mention this to another mac user I'm usually told "logical" resizing is better and to stop thinking like a windows user. I have this 14" for a reason and if I want to have emacs cover it then I don't see the problem with that. Maybe I'll accept that I have to drag the window size everytime I open it.
• If I'm compiling something large (emacs, or something big from fink) the system lags to the point where typing text can skip a bit. This seems to be due to the 256 ram though so I plan to get another 512 stick soon.
• For some reason if I have a cd in the drive I can only eject it with iTunes. Even if nothing is accessing the drive the eject key just seems to do nothing.
• fn + "alt option" never seems to show up as alt in any of my applications, perhaps I'm misreading the key?
• How can you guys live with only one mouse button? I definitely need to get a mouse to go with it.

Try holding F12 (eject) down for a second or two until you see the eject symbol show up on screen. If you just press it quickly, it assumes you didn't intend to press it.

Alt option? What do you mean?

One mouse button: it's funny. For a year, I used a 2-button MS mouse on my Mac because I had one at home and work. Then I started traveling and I'd be too lazy to pull the mouse out. Then I found myself Ctrl clicking with the left mouse button when I returned to the office. I've given up on the second button now. I never thought I'd get used to it but now my 2-button mouse is unused. Also got used to not having forward delete on my laptop. Never use forward delete on Windows, now, either.

[mblchris]

Ack! More with the "Windows" comments! I haven't used it in years

Is there any way to get a full maximize though?

Also, did a battery calibration and edited my power options so now I get a little over 4 hours on the battery.

[sniffer]

Originally posted by mgl:
Also got used to not having forward delete on my laptop. Never use forward delete on Windows, now, either.

Try fn+backspace.

Have a nice day!

[d4nth3m4n]

Originally posted by mblchris:
[*] For some reason if I have a cd in the drive I can only eject it with iTunes. Even if nothing is accessing the drive the eject key just seems to do nothing.
[/list]

go here in your hard drive.

/system/library/coreservices/menu extras/eject.menu

double click on that, it will put an eject botton in the upper right of your screen as a menu extra. this might help with the ejecting problem.

i dont have too many troubles with using f12 on my 700mhz ibook, cept that sometimes i have to wait a seemingly long ass time to get the thing to finally eject.

if you are missing the scroll bar on the side of the trackpad (a la wintel laptops) check out sidetrack. my girlfriend and i have been running this for a month now with no hiccups. i love it. [but i still have a two button scroll wheel mouse at home, driven by usb overdrive]

i hope something in this jumbled post was helpful.

Dan.

[SupahCoolX]

Other options for ejecting CDs (holding the eject button for a couple of seconds should work, too):
-If you have CD's and such set to appear on your desktop (check Finder Preferences), just drag the icon to the trash (which will turn into an eject symbol).
-Click the icon once and press Command-E (Command is the "apple" key next to the space bar)
-Open a Finder window and do either of the above 2 things.
-If you're running OSX 10.3 Panther, open a Finder window, and there should be a tiny eject button next to the CD's icon.

[mgl]

Originally posted by sniffer:
Try fn+backspace.

Have a nice day!

I know, but that takes a bit more dexterity. I just don't forward delete anymore.

[mgl]

Originally posted by mblchris:
Is there any way to get a full maximize though?

Not really. The reason for this is that Apple believes that people use computers to do more than one thing at once, with multiple windows open that you can drag between. (As opposed to MS' belief that people focus on only one thing at once.) While Apple is right, MS is right when it comes to small screens. There really should be a "use every available pixel that isn't OS chrome" button, but there isn't. I've used Macs for years and avoid the silly zoom button, which is unpredictable at best.

With a large cinema display, you wouldn't be asking for this because you wouldn't want to use every pixel. You'd just size the window as large as you want and use it, and then use the spare space for something else. Then you could drag between them if desired. With a laptop screen, there really should be a true zoom button.

[mblchris]

Originally posted by mgl:
Not really. The reason for this is that Apple believes that people use computers to do more than one thing at once, with multiple windows open that you can drag between. (As opposed to MS' belief that people focus on only one thing at once.) While Apple is right, MS is right when it comes to small screens. There really should be a "use every available pixel that isn't OS chrome" button, but there isn't. I've used Macs for years and avoid the silly zoom button, which is unpredictable at best.

With a large cinema display, you wouldn't be asking for this because you wouldn't want to use every pixel. You'd just size the window as large as you want and use it, and then use the spare space for something else. Then you could drag between them if desired. With a laptop screen, there really should be a true zoom button.

It's only "right" to Apple because they design everything for drag-and-drop (something I actually hate btw). I still don't see the problem with extending my emacs window to the size of the screen. If I'm coding then generally I'm going to be focused on that and if I need to get to other apps then I can use apple-tab. The fact that the option isn't even there kindof disappoints me.

[sniffer]

Originally posted by mgl:
I know, but that takes a bit more dexterity. I just don't forward delete anymore.

I reach for the fn key when I am on a regular keyboard.

[nickgold2012]

I don't miss a Windows-esque Maximize button, because I can do the same thing if I want.

Drag the app window you want to take up the whole screen to the size you prefer.

Close the window.

Upon launching the app, it should remember how you set it.

Click the green button -- it will change size. Adjust the window to how you would like it displayed in this "2nd state," both in terms of size and position.

Click green button -- you are back to maximized. Again, back to the secondary position. And back and forth. The app will remember these two states even after you quit it.

What else would you need? IMO this gives you just about the same functionality as the Windows version, but more flexibility, as you may want "maximized" to be less than the full screen.

[jessejlt]

Originally posted by nickgold2012:
I don't miss a Windows-esque Maximize button, because I can do the same thing if I want.

Drag the app window you want to take up the whole screen to the size you prefer.

Close the window.

Upon launching the app, it should remember how you set it.

Click the green button -- it will change size. Adjust the window to how you would like it displayed in this "2nd state," both in terms of size and position.

Click green button -- you are back to maximized. Again, back to the secondary position. And back and forth. The app will remember these two states even after you quit it.

What else would you need? IMO this gives you just about the same functionality as the Windows version, but more flexibility, as you may want "maximized" to be less than the full screen.

Also; If you open the application from a quit state and then resize the window the way you would like, minimize the window and then bring it to the forefront again. Quite the app and reopen. From now on it *should* always open to that same size / screen position.
jesse ;-)

[mblchris]

I'll give that a try as soon as I'm done with this paper I have due soon

[nickgold2012]

Looks like the behavior is somewhat dependent on the app itself -- Safari, for instance, does not behave quite as I described.